Wednesday, May 19, 2010

After it seems like many hard weeks of never-ending projects, we've finally wrapped up all the loose ends and were able to list our house a few days ago. All we need now is someone to love our home and neighborhood as much as we have. Although we've lost some sleep over trying to sell a house in the current market conditions, we know that everything will eventually fall into place...hopefully.

Since the dust has settled and we finally have a completed home, I find myself sad to leave a home that has been with us since the beginning of our family. Our first home has seen a family grow through happy times as well as painful moments. Through blood, sweat, and tears, it has seen almost every square inch transformed from its former 70's self to something we are so proud to call home.

When we purchased our home, a deck didn't exist. All we had was an unsafe "apartment balcony" that was hanging on the side of the house by a thread. My husband built this two-story deck over three summers. The bottom half is screened and it is relaxing to sit out and watch the kids play in the yard.

(upper story of deck)

You should have seen the kitchen & bath before we got a hold of it!

A part of me hopes that the next family that moves in has three girls too :)

It isn't a fancy mansion, but it's been the best first home we could have asked for and I hope the next family enjoys it as much as we have.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Has anyone been to Lolo Boutique in downtown Spokane? I think I could live in that store. If you love Anthropologie, you'll love Lolo's. It reminds me so much of all those great boutiques that I got to see on my recent Seattle trip. I love seeing places like this in the area!

Needless to say, I was more than a little flattered when one of the owners of Lolo happened to notice some of my jewelry creations a few weeks back at The Funky Junk Show! This is a first for me since I just started experimenting with jewelry, but I'm so excited to be making my bubble necklaces for Lolo's. I just received my supplies yesterday, so besides getting the house ready to sell, I'll be burning the midnight oil and making these goodies.

I had originally made just one of the initial necklaces, but there will be a wide range of these at Lolo's in the next few weeks!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

“Just Breathe” is what I’m currently telling myself about a thousand times a day right now. It is so easy at times to get completely wrapped-up in the lists and details of the overwhelming task of preparing a home for sale…well, make that the Dobson home. You see, my husband and I are the absolute rulers of unfinished house projects, but to our defense, we have changed every square inch of our home in the past five years, had two of our three girls, and both had jobs in public accounting (which means VERY long hours), and of course, my little antiques hobby takes up some time as well. It’s quite natural in these circumstances that window and door trim doesn’t get painted and hung after new windows and doors are put in or that house numbers don’t get hung FOUR years after we painted the house! These little open-ended projects are just the tip of the iceberg and the mental and written lists of things to accomplish before we list our house in the next week are waking me up at night and making me swear that we’ll never remodel another house or sell another house, ever.
Yep, the Dobson’s are moving to Sandpoint, Idaho. After six years of working between 55-70 hours a week year-round at a job that has robbed our family of so many special times, moments, and holidays, we’ve said, “Enough is enough!” My husband accepted a wonderful job opportunity up in Sandpoint and we are working around the clock to get the house projects completed and the house Q-Tip clean (which lasts about 5 minutes before cereal is dumped all over the floor or the 9-month crawls to the front of the stove and licks the glass on the door).

I am so very excited for the adventure and the positive changes that I am certain the move will bring to our family. I honestly can’t imagine what it will be like to have my husband home for dinner more than a third of the year. I can’t wait to see the transformation in my husband as he will begin to have balance in life and I know this will all benefit the kids so much… as soon as we can all get up there!